1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatuses for strengthening and rehabilitating the waist including the lumbar vertebrae and the lumbar muscles, and more particularly to a waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus and load controller used in conjunction with the apparatus to produce desired load by controlling the flow direction and amount of working fluid.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, around the waist region, the pelvis is connected to the vertebrae and two hip joints are connected to the pelvis. Various lumbar muscles are connected to both pelvis and vertebrae, so that the pelvis can conduct movement relative to the vertebrae.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,112 discloses one of conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatuses that are used to strengthen or rehabilitate the waist.
However, the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus has a problem in a user""s performing bending exercises in which the user sits up upright from a position where the waist is bent while the lower part of his body is firmly held by a thigh holding belt, as described below.
As shown in FIG. 1, the lower part of the body including the pelvis 1 is tightly held by the conventional apparatus in such a way that the knee 4 is raised up by a footrest 10 pushing the feet and the center portion of the thigh 3 is tied around a seat plate 12 by a belt 11 to bring the pelvis 1 into contact with the seat plate 12. However, in accordance with the conventional apparatus, only the femur 7 is tightly held by the belt 11, while the pelvis 1 is movable forward and rearward.
In more detail, in the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus, the knee 4 is raised up by elevating the footrest 10 from a position where the rear portion of the pelvis 1 is supported by a pelvis support 13, the feet 6 rest on the footrest 10 and a knee support 14 is situated at a proper height. As a result, the knee 4 is brought into contact with the knee support 14, but the lower portion of the thigh 3 becomes spaced apart from the seat plate 12. In this state, the center portion of the thigh 3 is tightly tied by the wide belt 11 to bring the pelvis 1 into contact with the seat plate 12.
When the center portion of the thigh is downwardly pushed by the belt 11, the waist seems to be tightly held by the conventional strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus, since the pelvis 1 is brought into contact with the seat plate 1 and the rear portion of the pelvis 1 is supported by the pelvis support 13. However, only the femur 7 is tightly held by the belt 11 and the pelvis 1 is movable forward and rearward, so that the pelvis 1 can be rotated around the hip joint 2, thus causing the lower part of the body to be somewhat freely movable.
Additionally, the rear portion of the pelvis 1 seems to be supported by the pelvis support 13, but shock absorbing space exists between the rear portion of the pelvis 1 and the pelvis support 13. Accordingly, this cannot be called a safe holding from the medical point of view.
When the center portion of the thigh 3 is tightly held by the belt 11 with the knee raised up by the footrest 10 pushing the feet 6, the pelvis 1 is brought into tight contact with the seat plate 12, but space is created between the thigh 3 and the seat plate 12. The space allows the thigh 3 to be moved, so that the thigh 3 is not tightly held by the apparatus.
In practice, when a user performs bending exercises in which he sits up straight from a position where the waist is bent, force resulting from the bending exercises is transmitted to feet through the pelvis 1, the femur 7 and the calf 5. The force exerted on the footrest 10 is increased in proportion to the force applied by a user. The sequential transmission of the reaction proceeding from the pelvis 1 to the feet 6 means that the bones and joints ranging from the pelvis 1 to the feet 6 are not properly held by the apparatus.
Though the waist seems to be tightly held by the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus because feet are laid on the footrest 10 and the buttocks is supported by the pelvis support 13, shock absorbing space exists between the pelvis 1 and the pelvis support 13. Consequently, the pelvis 1 should be moved rearward till the pelvis 1 is brought into tight contact with the pelvis support 13, and the belt is tightened correspondingly.
The belt 11 is tightened to the center portion of the thigh 3. As a result, it is difficult for the pelvis 1 to be brought into contact with the seat plate 12 and a user may experience pain in his thigh caused by the tightening of the belt 11 so as to bring the pelvis 1 into the seat plate 12.
When a user performs bending exercises in which he sits up straight from a position where the waist is bent, force exerted on the footrest 10 and the tightness of the belt 11 are increased in proportion to force applied by the user. These prove that the waist is not held properly.
The holding of the lower part of the body should be performed so as to suppress the movement of the lower part, since force resulting from the bending exercises of the upper part of the body is exerted to the lower part, causing the lower part to move. However, the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus does not prevent the lower part from moving due to force resulting from the bending exercises of the upper part.
The lumbar vertebrae constituting the principal element of the waist consists of a plurality of vertebrae directly connected to one another without the aid of an additional support bone, and spinal nerves pass through the lumbar vertebrae, so that the lower part of the body including the pelvis should be tightly held during waist exercises. However, in the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus, the knees are held by a holding plate and the center portion of the thighs are tied to a seat by a belt, so that strengthening or rehabilitating effect is poor and accidents such as the fracture of a bone may occur in the case of the elderly and osteoporosis sufferers.
In addition, the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus has shortcomings in that it is difficult for a user to recognize the degree of tightness of the thigh holding belt and the thigh holding belt cannot be rapidly loosened in case of excessive tightening. When pain is excessive during strengthening or rehabilitation or preparation therefor, the thigh holding belt is not easily loosened, thereby causing a problem in safety.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus, which is capable of securely holding the lower part of the body, including the pelvis, by means of lower body holding means, momentarily loosening the lower part in an emergency and preventing accidents that may occur during excise.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus, which allows waist strengthening and rehabilitating exercise to be actively or passively conducted within a predetermined angle and allows a user to conduct bending, reflexion and twisting exercises.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a load controller, which is capable of easily controlling the quantity and direction of load, being simply constructed, being widely used, and being easily installed and utilized.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus, in which a support unit is constructed by assembling all or some of a footrest, a backrest, a pedestal, a handle and related frames, and waist exercises are conducted utilizing a backrest frame operated in conjunction with a load controller with the lower part of his body being fixed to the support unit, the apparatus further comprising lower body holding means mounted on the support unit, the lower body holding means being comprised of a front thigh holder for tightly holding the front portion of the thigh and a rear thigh holder for tightly holding the rear portion of the thigh.
The lower body holding means may further comprise pelvis holding means, the pelvis holding means consisting of a front pelvis holder for tightly holding the front portion of the pelvis and a rear pelvis holder for tightly holding the rear portion of the pelvis, or may be constructed by all or some of the front thigh holder, the rear thigh holder, the front pelvis holder and the rear pelvis holder.
The front thigh holder and the rear thigh holder may be each provided with an inclination support unit.
The front thigh holder may comprise moving means in which a pressurizing bar is guided by two pairs of moving links supported by fixed frames; inclined link supporting means provided with an elastic support that supports one inclined moving link; stopper means for preventing the moving link from being moved rearward and allowing the moving link to support the pressurizing bar; and pressurizing means for allowing a pressurizing rod to be pressurized by moving forward the moving link.
The waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus may further comprise a pressure meter operated according to pressure exerted from the pressuring holder to the pressurizing rod, the pressure meter being mounted on a portion moved together with the pressuring holder so as to recognize the amount of the pressure.
The waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus may further comprise a holding release unit for momentarily loosening the holding means, the holding release unit being mounted on the lower body holding means.
The waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus may further comprise a manual exercise lever for manually conducting exercise, the manual exercise lever being mounted on a frame moved together with the backrest or a portion of the load controller moved together with the backrest frame.
The waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus may further comprise a measuring instrument such as a load cell mounted on a frame moved together with the load controller to measure resisting force caused by exercise load, and a braking unit for the braking adjustment of the load controller and sectional braking mounted on the rotating shaft of the frame moved together with the load controller.
The waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus may further comprise a vertical rotating shaft, the vertical rotating shaft being situated under the support frame of the backrest to be operated in conjunction with the load controller, the vertical rotating shaft being aligned with the central line of the lumbar vertebrae so as to allow the waist to be twisted
The present invention provides a waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus, in which a support unit is constructed by assembling all or some of a footrest, a backrest, a pedestal, a handle and related frames, and waist exercises are conducted utilizing a backrest frame operated in conjunction with a load controller with the lower part of his body being fixed to the support unit, the apparatus further comprising; lower body holding means for tightly holding the lower part of the body, the lower body holding means being mounted on the support unit; a pressure meter for recognizing the degree of the tightness of the lower body holding means, the pressure meter being mounted on a portion moved together with the lower body holding means; and a holding release unit for momentarily releasing the holding of the lower body holding means by the application of external manipulation, the holding release unit being mounted on a portion moved together with the lower body holding means.
The present invention provides a load controller, comprising: an annular space provided in a casing around its central shaft to accommodate with working fluid; a vane having the same shape as the cross section of the annular space positioned in the annular space to be operated in conjunction with the central shaft; an working fluid adjustor situated in a portion of the annular space to adjust the direction and amount of working fluid; and a fluid load adjustor formed to communicate with the annular space so as to adjust load by varying the volume of the inner cavity thereof; wherein the working fluid adjustor is comprised of a flow rate control valve and a flow direction control valve, and can adjust the direction and amount of working fluid.
The present invention provides a load controller, comprising: load applying means, in which a load lever is mounted to a portion moved together with a central shaft and the size of load can be adjusted by changing the position of weights; balancing means, in which an auxiliary load lever is situated to be opposite to the load lever and resisting force exerted from the outside to the central shaft is controlled by changing the position of weights; clutch means that is disposed between a portion moved together with a central shaft and the load applying means to connect or disconnect the load applying means with or from the apparatus; attenuating means that is mounted on the moved portion of the load applying means to attenuate return load generated by the load applying means while the load applying means is returned to its original position after performing movement; and sectional braking means, in which a ratchet gear portion is formed on a portion moved together with the central shaft and a stopper is situated in the vicinity of the ratchet gear portion, thereby performing sectional braking; wherein the load controller includes all or some of the load applying means, the balancing means, the clutch means, the attenuating means, and the sectional braking means.